it seems that some companies try to follow the trend without spending much money on developing a new pattern. So many suits look like the only thing they did was replacing the size label with one that is one size up.

If I loose 15kg, then I can tailor me a slim fit suit and throw the other suits away, LOL.

If you get the basics right (balance, ease and proportions) anyone can wear a slim fitting suit, independent from the body mass. It's just that so many people buy the wrong size and expect the tailor to do some magic. Styleforum is full of pictures of ill fitting garments (not restricted to RTW).

Todd Hudson likes this

"Nur der ist Meister seiner Kunst, der immer sucht, das Gute zu verbessern und niemals glaubt, das Beste schon zu haben.""Only he is a master of his art who always seeks to improve the good and never believes to have the best already"

Hello All, I have noticed in the last year, 2012-2013, an unusually large increase of younger men in their 20's suddenly purchasing RTW suits, shirts with french cuffs, and a resurgence of waistcoats in my location.

I am happy to see such a large number of younger generation wishing to get out of jeans and upgrading their wardrobe to dress more presentable.

These young men are overwhelmingly requesting suits to alter as "slim fitted" suits. Most average wish for 16.5 inch hem width at bottom of trouser, many are requesting slanted cuffs also.

The issues I am seeing are for example a gentleman measures a 6 foot tall, 43 inch chest, 36 waist.

The men will to my location with a 38 short jacket and trousers for me to view because they are not sure why the garment does not seem to fit properly as they were expecting.

The normal reply is they are being told this is a slim fitted suit and to get one so many sizes less than your chest measure and shorter length.

This is a problem from local area and RTW purchased online from multiple locations that I have experienced.

I wondered if any others are experiencing or noticed a similar trend in style and requests from the young group?

Kind regards

Jeffrey2117

It must be Thom Browne's pernicious influence. Unfortunately, people seem to think that if they buy a non-TB suit two sizes too small, they can mimic the look, while an actual TB suit is cut to fit true to size, and features e.g. leg-of-mutton sleeve heads to provide freedom of movement.

It is hilarious, but the "guest" said the product originated in Mexico. There may be a name for the specialty, but there do exist special body corset makers in New York who specialize in this kind of garment. The ones I've seen are Central or South American.

Gives new meaning to the movie cliché "Excuse me while I slip into something more comfortable [and would you have a crowbar you could lend me?."

Interests:Sewing and tailoring, numismatics, frustrating my assistant by forgetting where I put things when I move them.

Posted 02 April 2013 - 10:51 AM

There's nothing wrong with tailoring along the lines of fashion, but it gets difficult if a client doesn't understand the difference between tailored clothes and fashion design.

It often means they have unrealistic expectations. If on top of that they try to force the tailor to do their bidding, unwilling to see reason... then what's the use? They won't be happy with the final product, so may as well not start.

Hello Martin,

I just had a man come in with very unrealistic expectations for longer version of a slim fitted suit. I knew that with his build that he would not be satisfied with a suit that he envisioned.

He then tried to be a bit forceful in his request. The man then threatened to go take his business to another tailor.

The man told me to give him the location of another tailor in town. I told him that I could give him other tailor's current location, but it would do him no good. He said that he would determine that for himself.

I then informed him that he was buried in the Memorial park and had resided there for slightly over 20 years.

Kind regards,

Jeffrey2117

Edited by jeffrey2117, 02 April 2013 - 11:29 AM.

"An intelligent man knows he is ignorant, a ignorant man knows he is intelligent".

"Nur der ist Meister seiner Kunst, der immer sucht, das Gute zu verbessern und niemals glaubt, das Beste schon zu haben.""Only he is a master of his art who always seeks to improve the good and never believes to have the best already"

Fit first then fashion. Which is do the fitting first and then add in the fashion. One of the problems some people have is they get used to a fashion they mistake as correct and normal so anything new looks wrong when it is not. Tailors have always had have to figure out how to step into the future and still have good looks, which required how to think different to fit the new look. High hemmed coats are not new and tailors have done millions of them. The buisness frock coat is longer than business coats of today, but correct, and tailors made them too. Different types of waist indents have come and gone. The list of fashion goes on that tailors have made and some were invented by tailors. Back in the early 1970s short coats were a fashion for after work wear, so that is not new, and in the 1850s(?) they were shorter (there were a lot more tailors in the 1850s than now, don't you think). Today to many tailors are saying certain close are correct and everything else is wrong, this is not what tailors said for hundreds of year in the past. Tailors need to start thinking like tailors of the past to get into the furure. One fo the keys to stepping into the future is to understand the fashion so you can frame it right as clothing when you fit it and make it. It is t5he customers who brings in the fashion and the tailors job is to probe him until he understands how to make it. Tailors have been doing this for hundreds of years. It does not take much looking at clothes of the past to see that. One of the problems that tailors have today is customers expect clothes to be cheap, and of course tailors can not do that.

Interests:Sewing and tailoring, numismatics, frustrating my assistant by forgetting where I put things when I move them.

Posted 05 April 2013 - 11:50 PM

Fit first then fashion. Which is do the fitting first and then add in the fashion. One of the problems some people have is they get used to a fashion they mistake as correct and normal so anything new looks wrong when it is not. Tailors have always had have to figure out how to step into the future and still have good looks, which required how to think different to fit the new look. High hemmed coats are not new and tailors have done millions of them. The buisness frock coat is longer than business coats of today, but correct, and tailors made them too. Different types of waist indents have come and gone. The list of fashion goes on that tailors have made and some were invented by tailors. Back in the early 1970s short coats were a fashion for after work wear, so that is not new, and in the 1850s(?) they were shorter (there were a lot more tailors in the 1850s than now, don't you think). Today to many tailors are saying certain close are correct and everything else is wrong, this is not what tailors said for hundreds of year in the past. Tailors need to start thinking like tailors of the past to get into the furure. One fo the keys to stepping into the future is to understand the fashion so you can frame it right as clothing when you fit it and make it. It is t5he customers who brings in the fashion and the tailors job is to probe him until he understands how to make it. Tailors have been doing this for hundreds of years. It does not take much looking at clothes of the past to see that. One of the problems that tailors have today is customers expect clothes to be cheap, and of course tailors can not do that.

Hello Greger,

Thank you for the great reply, I appreciate your taking time to present this view of thinking that is a reminder for us all to continue to progress with the times.

After reading a few times, I start to think of different style and changes of young men's fashion. I remember in early 1970's the young men did not want to look like their fathers or grandfathers, so why would they think differently nowadays?

Below are some of the things I have experienced in regards to changes in menswear in my location and time.

The older men brought suits from the 50's and 60's styles, which I saw closer fitted suits with narrow lapel and cuffed hems for the trousers. The legs on the 1950's trousers were a bit wider with pleats, most of the 50's and 1960's that I worked on had plain fronts.

The early 70's a lot of slim shirts and trousers, migrating to the mid and late 70's style arrived with two piece casual and three piece for business suit many with the wide lapels, flared trouser legs, and leisure suits until these went out of style.

The 80's brought forth two button suits, plain front trouser, lot of blazers and contrast color casual wear. During this time, I narrowed many lapels and trouser legs during this time. In contrast, the older men would request me to add watch pockets to these trousers!

The 90's I see trend develop to more solid colors than pin stripe suits, without waistcoat, two and three pleat trousers with wide legs with adjustable waistbands become more popular as the population was getting larger.

The 2000's, this was a continuation of the 90's with wide trouser legs and the exception that I see more traditional colors and resurgence of pin stripes and wide cuffs 1 5/8-1 3/4" and trending toward more traditional styles with greys and darks in the later part of this decade.

2010's, this continued on from the previous decade with better fitted, suits, with two pleated trousers as the norm with 1.5 inch cuffs, many requests for side adjusters and return to many classic cloths, closer pin striped cloth and checks, more requesting waistcoasts now.

2012 to present; great multitude of requests for pin striped dark fabrics, very slim fitted two button suits, narrow lapels with shorter length jacket, sleeves and trousers, some waistcoats, very slim fitting shirts with French cuffs, narrow leg trousers (16 1/2" average), nearly all want cuffed trouser hems 1 3/8" wide, many asking about waist adjusters with buckles now. Many casual wear trousers requests I have now are smaller checked patterns and solids.

The problem I see is that these men wish the slim fitted suits, but are buying RTW that is too short and much too tight for them and they look terrible, like the stuffed sausage bags as described in earlier reply to my original post.

Close fitting suits that actually fit the person properly and look great on them, I have no problems with it.

Kind regards,

Jeffrey2117

Edited by jeffrey2117, 06 April 2013 - 01:33 AM.

Todd Hudson likes this

"An intelligent man knows he is ignorant, a ignorant man knows he is intelligent".

Yes, slim fit should fit close but feel loose. A well fitted garment can do that.
In the big cities tailors can be picky. Town and Country tailors make whatever brings in the money.
Some of the lessons of good tailors are opposites like a puzzel with pieces inbetween so it is one good picture.
For example, Stay away from high fashion. The purpose of this is to accumulate the gravy train customers (figure it out).
Another example, Even the gravy train tailors know the breath and depth and width of the latest high fashions and can make it, but don't (but, sometimes they do).
High fashion tailors are on the cutting edge.
Why does the gravy train tailor know the high fashion? It is his job to understand the culture that is clothing.
To be King of an industry you have to know the most and that is the tailors job with clothing.
The tailors who know how to understand the culture of clothes are important to learn from.
Culture and art go together, so to be a tailor one really needs to learn this, because tailoring is an ever changeing art.
Like everything else one has to keep up.

Carpu65-great pics! But why should these ridiculous "Peewee Herman" outfits be referred to as fashion? Why not call them what they are- a fad or a trend?

Quite frankly...Usher looked great on his well-fitted slim jacket. He has both the physique and the money to afford a proper slim fit. Though he may not be dressed for a boardroom...what company wouldn't be interested in his representation? He is afterall an entertainer and not a captain of industry. His clothing choice seems appropriate to me.

The problem is that the general "uneducated" public cannot afford custom tailoring and RTW is always ready to lie to the public with bad trends and fads that they tout incorrectly as "fashion".

To REALLY confuse the issue..the womens fashion houses for the last couple of seasons have begun to imitate the RTW polygoop available to the masses...using lots of polyester themselves and many of the same shapeless styles with bad color/pattern combos. Is it really any wonder menswear is following suit?